Filing system



July 27 1926. I 1,594,119

. I L. RlTTER FILING SYSTEM 7 Filed Nov. 13, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR A; ATTORNEY July 27, 1926. 1,594,119

L. RlTTER FILING SYSTEM Filed Nov. 13,, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I lNyENTOR 0420 TM he ATTORNEY Patented, July 27, 1926.

1 Q LE0 mmmna on naooiiny v, new so.

r'ILIivG svs'frmvrl I v Application file d November 1a, 1925. Serial 1a. 68,748.

This invention relates ,to filing systems and aims toprovide such a 'system in which each individual element filed is readily distinctive characteristics of theelementsffiled have been indicatedprincipally by the posi- Such systerns necessarily involve the use offguides tion of I the elements in the file.

inserted at 1 frequent intervals in "the file. 'In order to make it possible-to locate any element quickly, a considerable numberv of such guides are necessary, and in the case of an incomplete or changing seriescf filed elements, a large part of the guide cards may be in use only a part of the timefand during the rest of the time occupy valuable space in the file and interfere With rather than help in, its use. A moreserious disadvantage of such system lies in the fact that an element which ism'isfiled is completely lost, and that an element cannot easily be located in a mass of elements which e a In accordance with 'the present invention,

necessity for looking at the faces ofthe elements, the'necessity for all guide cards, and the danger of misfilin'g, but also makes it possible to identify any individual element in the form which I consider most desirable I includes a set ofelements provided with I tabs of. different'shapes so arranged that the :shape o-fthe tab of each element'indicates an identifying characteristic of that elein a confused mass of elements orto select any element from the file by an identifying characteristic of a sort other than that in accordance with which is filed.

A filing. system embodying; the invention ment in accordance with a uniformprearinfthe file. In order. to these disadvantages are eliminated andnew; advantages are gained by providing each individual filed'element with a projecting f tab which indicates its identifying char- 'acteristics. This not only" eliminates the iawaly, of such a numericalfile; 7

element is. provided UNITE mm PATENT a third sort may be indicated by the color ofthe tab or of 'thewhole element. Q I

The invention may be applied tomany tifyingcharacteristics of any sort may be indicated by theshapeof the tabsas well as their position and their color. Thus the invention may be applied to an alpha betical filingsystem by making the shapes of the tabs indicate letters or partsofthe alphabet corresponding to surnames on the elements, while the position of the tabsmay different kindsof filing systems, since idenindicate the position in theialphabet offirst names or initials appearing on theelements.

'01 again, the shapes of-the tabs *may indicats sections of the alphabet and the posic tion of the tabs may indicate particular let ters' or groups ot letters in such sections.

A simple application of the "inventionis 1 to numerical filing system. In this case threedigits of numbers'idenL-ifying the elements, may be indicated separately by :tho position, shape and color of the tabs soytlfi'at "anyone of one" thousand elements-may be have been removed from the file during its readily identified regardless 012 its position illustrate the ,nsd the in- ,yention; I will describe in detail a nrunerical filing system embodying it which is illus trated in the accompanying drawings Fig.1 is a persp ctive view. partly broken Fig.i2 i e-a kcyto' the position of meats Oil the elementsshown in 1;

. Fig; Sis a key' t'o the shapes ofthe tabs:

I key, e tabs or .elements; V V" i c mixed to ether and Fig. 6 1s a perspective view of" part of a file i n which some of; the elements shown in Fig.1 are arranged'according to dates.

TheJ-filingsystem illustrated'in Fig. 1."

when 'c'ompleteQmav include 999 individual v elements identified-'by serial numbers' and arranged one behind another in a file case.

I The. individual elements are shown a s"cards.

although it will readily be understoodthat they may consist of sheets, folders or any other elements .capableof being filed. Each edge with j a .tab.

The word stab I is L s a to indicate any t. Sa Pe @tits positions 1-, 2, .3, etc. up to 0, humbering from the left, as indicated by the k ja Fig. 1 2. The tab of each element occuples the one of these positions corresponding i to one ofthe digits of thenumbcr identifying that element. In theiform illustrated the positions of the-tabs indicate the unit digits so .thatwhen the elen. ,nts are-,aligned, all

those identified by numbers terminating in the same, nnit;digit haveitheir tabs directlyin line one behind anotheiir-v r z ;,Tl1e tabs of the/various elements are of different shapes In the embodiment illustrated, tendifferent: shapes are used, arbitrarily representing the digitsfrom l to O in accordanceiwithflthe lzey shown in Fig. 3. The tab of each element has the .shape indicating one of thedigits of the number identifying that element for example, the tens digit so that all elements with identifying tabs of;the same shape. a

The elements and tabs are of ten different colors'which are chosen arbitrarily represent the digits from 1 to O in accordance With the key shownin Figje The color of the tab of each element isused to,indinumbers having the same tens digit havev cate one of the digits of the number identifying that element for v example the hundreds digit, so, that all the elements identi-i fiedby numbers having the same hundreds digit are he same color.. 5 a v .In using the filing system illustrated 1n Fig. 1 an element identified by any number 3 from 1 to 999 maymeadily be selected; If, h for example the,number sought. is 123,, it

is necessary only-to, glance at the aligned tabs in the 3 position and to lift the blue two-pointed-tab. i. I i

, The misfiling of an element is readily apparent from the failuresof its tab tocorrespond in. shape, or to succeedinposition, the tabs ofv the elements,adjacenttto it. Thus,

I the elementsl and 135;-are obviously misfiled in the file shown-in Fig.

It is not essenti that, the

arrangedin the" file in. accordance with the numbers indicatechbyvtheir tabs as shown in Fig. ;1 sin order-; that" any element may be identified and sel ected. Thus an element identified by any given number may' be selectecla from, the elements shown in Fig. 5, 1

which have been removed from the file and lements be confused together, in the same manner as element amoii'gthose removed, but it is also a, simple ,matter to refile, the remoyed ele- .ments since the ap'p eai anc, e, ,of each element immediately indicates the position in which wit vshould be inserted in the file "shown'in IIt is fften important to iile the elements I shown in Fig l by some system other than :their identifying 'numbers. arm 1 ex ample, it may be desirable to'file them,'or

some of them, in accordance w th dates which, they bear and which aie'hot connected in sequencewith th rnum'bers This system of'filing -.is ,illustrated Fig, 6. In this figure, it f appears, as 1 is frequently the case, that comparatively few elements are placed in the part oflthe file lelati'ng'fio any a one, specific date The, inchm'pleteness I of the series of elements for eachjdate, which would render the use of numerical guide cards between the date guides extremely cumbersome, in no way interferes yvi th the use of the tabs of these elements to arrange them in numerical order so thatlanyi de sired. element may (prickly be selected. 1 ,urthermore, it is not ey'en essential that the group of elements relating to one specific date be arranged numeaically as'the 'tabs proyide a ready means for selecting any desired element without such arrangement, and of course if; no attempt .is' made .to preserve the numerical sequence under each date the refiling of any element" may ,be effected instantly by merelypinserting it anywhere in thefgroup "elementsbehind I the guide card bearing th same date as the element. 4 l; v 1 I g It, should; be clearly understood that'the invention is' by no. means limited to the illuscr ative embodiment which has been described. i

lVhat lclaim isz I I I I, 1. filingsystem comprising a -continuous series of elements in which each individual element lhas a distinctive tab in a distinc- .ti,ve location visually indicatingfbyi itsi' ap- Qpearance and locationjithe position of the element in the serieswithout reference to y i d 'c' hermall- 19! filing system;

comprising elements having different identifying characteristics and tabs of different shapes so arranged that shape of y the: tab' of each/ element ifldiates an identifying characteristic of that element in accordance with a uniform plan.

a 5,! fi ing is m, e r e as" i s having ldentifying characteristics of two' int sorts and provided with tabs of different shapes andfin different positions, all the elements which have a common identifying characteristic of onesorthaving tabs in the same position and all the elements which have a common identifying characteristic ments having av characteristic ofvone sort in common have their tabs in'the same pos tion,

of another sort having tabs of the same identifying characteristic of one sort, the

shape of the tab indicates an identifying characteristic of another sort, and the color of the tab indicates an identifying characteristic of still another sort, so that all eleall having the characteristic of another sort in common have tabs .of the same shape, and all having a characteristic of a third sort in common have tabs of the samecolor.

in which the tabs of the elements are arranged in ten different positions and are of tively' two digits of itsidentifying numben a 6; A filing system, consisting ofelements' identified by numbers andv each having a having tabs offthe same. color.

tech tab indicating the unit digit of the number identifying that element, While the shape ofthe tab'indicates-the tens digit of thev number identifying that element.

7 .Q A filing system, consisting of elements identified by a series oftnumbers and each having a, tab, in which the tabs "of the elements are in different positions, have different shapes and different colors, allelements identified by numbers which have the same nnit digit having tabs inithe same position, all elements identified by numbers Whichhave the same tensdigit having tabs of the same shapeyand all elements which.

have numbers ofthe-same hundreds digit identified by characteristics of two uncon nected series,'in which the elements are arranged serially in accordance with their characteristics of one of said series, and in which each element is provided with a tab v i -e indicatingflits identifying characteristic of 5. A filing system, consisting offielements identified bynnmbers and each having a tab,

the otherseries v i 9. A filing system, consist ng'of a series 8. A fil'ng system, "comprising elements of elements identified by acontinuous series ofnumbers and each having a tab inwhich the tabs of the elements are arranged n different positionsand are of difierent colors, the color and position of the tab of each element indicating respectively two digits of a it's identifying number. tab, inwhich the tabs of the elements are of ten different shapes and in ten different 4 positions on the elements, the position of In testimony whereof Ihave hereunto set 

